


Overlapping

by lightningwaltz



Category: 999: Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors - Fandom
Genre: Drunken Flirting, Friendship, Post-Canon, Spoilers, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-24
Updated: 2014-12-24
Packaged: 2018-03-03 05:30:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2839790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lightningwaltz/pseuds/lightningwaltz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>Junpei was a little relieved to find that Snake played puzzles in the same way as everyone else.</i>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	Overlapping

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Masu_Trout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Masu_Trout/gifts).



> Masu-Trout asked for fic that explored what happened with Junpei and Snake post escaping from the nonary game. I've always been curious about that myself. This is a short fic about a conversation they might have had a week or two after.
> 
> I hope you have a great holiday!

After Clover left the two of them alone, Snake had switched the tv over to a news channel. There was a report on global warming, and the station was showing parts of the Antarctic coast shelving in real time. There wasn't much commentary, but Junpei didn’t have to wonder what Snake was getting out of it. It was ungodly loud, which made sense. It wasn’t like dunking ice cubes into a glass of water, after all. Continents just couldn’t flake away in total silence.

“They think that ice shelving is the reason for the Bloop, you know.” 

“The _Bloop_?" Snake was lying on the ground, a few bottles of liquor surrounding the top of his head. It made Junpei think of how Egyptian mummies were buried with jars of their own organs. This in turn made him think of Snake lying in a coffin, and bathrooms splattered with congealing viscera, and, yeah, it was time to think of something else. 

“You know, that thing about a really loud sound recorded under the ocean? There’s no explanation for it, but it’s creepy as hell, man. Some people swear up and down it has to be an animal, and not ice.” Back in high school he had made it his text message alert sound until his friends had started complaining about it. _Akane_ would have been able to sell anyone on the fascinating nature of this story. Junpei could only be obsessed with it.

“That sounds familiar, actually,” Snake said. “Though maybe I think it sounds familiar because you’re making me feel as though I should know it.” Junpei was learning that Snake got slightly philosophical when tipsy. “Play it for me when they let us have internet again.” A sardonic smile. “Maybe I’ll crack the mystery wide open.” 

“Okay, sure.” _When they had internet again._ When he had control over his life again. He was sitting in a window seat, fingers sprawled against a window that was frosty-cold from air conditioning. The city breathed with light and life. From this high up the streets were elegant, and almost mathematical in the exactness of their function. Junpei remembered that the sidewalks in front of the building were chipped and pockmarked, dusted in places with broken glass as fine as snow.

“Are you bored, Junpei?” 

“Yeah.” Junpei chewed on one of the ties of his hoodie, and then stopped when he remembered that Snake likely heard it, and knew exactly what he was doing. “That’s all on me though.” 

“If you have any suggestions…” Snake didn’t sound rude or pushy. He just sounded like someone who didn’t want to leave. 

During the beginning of their confinement, law enforcement had asked each of them to fill out a sheet with the essentials they would need. Running on fumes by that point, Junpei had written “puzzles!” at the very bottom, underlined it six times, and then stumbled his way into a bed. When he next opened his eyes, he uncovered a pile of neatly folded clothes from Walmart, some over the counter medication, and deodorant. There’d been toothpaste but no toothbrush, and Junpei had had to ask for one during one of the interviews with the FBI. 

There had also been an unopened puzzle game. 

Junpei slid open the drawer of the bedside table, where he had left it next to a bible. (He supposed that if an old ship could be used as a center for human experimentation, then an old motel could easily be turned into a safety home.)

“Well,” Junpei said, so suddenly that Snake turned a bit to face him, “I do have a puzzle we could work on. I guess.” 

“Sure.” Snake lifted the remote. The televisions in here didn’t skimp on cable, and he soon landed on some station that played hip hop instrumentals. “Let’s do that.”

Junpei pried the tape from the box. When he dug open the flap, it gave a cardboard-y squeal that made his teeth throb. The puzzle pieces rained onto the floor, bone-white against the faded green carpet. 

“I think there’s a straggler or two. You might want to take care of that.” Snake downed a shot of vodka.

Since Snake had more than demonstrated the acuteness of his hearing, Junpei dutifully shoved his arm into the container. Nothing.

Snake snickered, and dove into the pile of puzzle pieces. He picked one up and rolled it back and forth between his index finger and thumb. “I’m amused that you believed me.” 

“What are you, five?” 

“No, but you are. Were.” 

“ _Wow_.”

Junpei stared down at the scab from his nonary watch. It would have healed sooner if he hadn’t had an unfortunate habit of picking at wounds.

Snake touched the now empty box. “It’s one of those all white puzzles, hm?” 

“How can you…” Junpei trailed off. Sighed and grinned. “Goddamn it. Braille?” 

“Though pieces with images do have a different texture from those that don't.” Snake had found a few of the border portions, and was separating them from the rest. Junpei was a little relieved to find that Snake played puzzles in the same way as everyone else. 

Assembling the perimeter was fairly easy, but it took patience to make progress on everything in between. Snake seemed to have an ear for melody, and hummed along to most of the songs playing on the TV. A couple of times Junpei shut his eyes and tried to find the pieces that matched. He ran his fingers over the edges, mentally reconstructing their shapes. It was tricky, and he expected it to be, but once or twice he managed to find a match. 

“You’re being a bit slow, Junpei. I know you’re smarter than that.” 

Junpei reached for one of the bottles of liquor, and took a swig of whisky. It slid down his throat, warming him up.

“Are you trash talking me because of a _puzzle_?”

He put down three connecting pieces in a row. He’d been saving them for the next time Snake acted like a jackass, but Snake just laughed.  
Somehow this exchange unlocked memories that it shouldn’t have. The two of them in an ornate bedroom. Snake with blood on the soles of his shoes, blood that left incongruous stains on a plush carpet. He had no patience for slowness then, either. _Perhaps you’d like to lie on the bed with me?_

Of course, until they’d let him out of that coffin he and Snake had never worked together. 

“Puzzles can be life and death, after all.” After sliding another piece into place, Snake poured shots for both of them. His enunciation was as clear as ever, though, and he must have strong tolerance for alcohol considering how he'd started sooner in the evening than Junpei. The two of them clinked the glasses together and then drank it all down. 

Junpei licked a sheen of liquor from his lips. He really wished he’d had some kind of chaser, but Clover had ended up with all the soda in her room and she was probably asleep by now. For some reason she kept the sleep schedule of an old man

“Whenever law enforcement lets us go… When I’m finally back in my apartment after all the time... what the hell will that even _like_? It’s not exactly something you can talk about if you want to be really fun at parties.” 

Snake kept his focus on their task, but he did have his head tilted like he was giving the question proper consideration. “You’re asking me because I have experience in this.” 

Junpei nodded before he remembered who he was talking to. He pulled his hood up and then let it fall again. “It’s like joining the world’s shittiest exclusive club, and no one’s told me what to do.” 

“And no one is going to,” Snake said. “Though perhaps you will have more resources than Clover and I. The authorities seem to believe us this time, and that’s probably for the better.” His voice was too smoothed out with liquor to sound bitter. 

“That’s something.” A bit humbled, Junpei found two more matching pieces, but he didn’t know where they belonged yet. As he put them down, Snake reached over and lightly touched the back of Junpei’s hand. 

“You will feel unsafe all the time for a very long while,” he said, undeniably kind. “And whatever you were doing when you were kidnapped… Well. That’s going to make you especially nervous, no matter how ridiculous it is.” 

“I was looking in the mirror. And that already gives me panic attacks,” Junpei joked. It had been a classic horror film gambit, actually. Staring at one’s reflection and then seeing an unexpected figure over his shoulder. He chose to believe that Aoi had done the actual kidnapping, and not Akane. “What terrible luck.”

“You deflect a lot,” Snake said, still touching Junpei.

“And _you_ sound like you’re trying to get me in bed again.” Which was also a deflection, but Snake’s good hand tapered off into long, calloused fingers (from the _harp_ , apparently) and it wasn’t difficult to imagine how nice they probably felt in other places.

“Again?” 

“Er, never mind.” Junpei winced, and decided he wanted to drink even more. “Non-existent memories are a bitch and a half.” 

Snake stole some of the puzzle pieces that Junpei has neglected, and made a sound of approval when they matched some of his own. 

“I hit on you in another timeline, hm? Knowing me it’s because you separated me from Clover.” 

“I… can’t swear to it. It’s like trying to remember a dream, Sna- Light.” And as the days go by they become less concrete, less tangible. Card tables overlaying shower curtains. Snake’s cool assertiveness lurking at the edges of Akane’s spiels about the supernatural. Both of them had known more than they were willing to admit.

He poured yet another shot, and as it settled in his stomach, he realized his limbs were starting to feel like rubber. “I want to find her again.” 

Snake shook his head. “That is a terrible idea, but no one can stop you if you’re set on it.” 

“How do you feel about her?” 

Snake ran his fingers over the top of the puzzle, eventually coming to circle around the last gap. “Oh, I would need to write a book to adequately answer that question. Let's just say I admire her greatly. And I think I could kill her for all the nightmares Clover is going to have again.”

Junpei filled in the last of the puzzle, and it became a white square crisscrossed with fault lines. It felt like the two of them had done a lot of work for something that was ultimately empty.


End file.
